Ruth Page (University of Leicester) & Hannah Chapman (Birmingham City University)

 1 st year, 1 st semester module  Aims ◦ Introduce concepts from literary theory and illustrate them through the use of digital texts ◦ Encourage the scholarly use of online resources ◦ Broaden what it might mean to ‘read’ a ‘text’ in English studies

 Precedents in North American universities  ‘Generation M’ (Born post 1983) ◦ Familiarity with technology  Blinds spots in the use of online materials ◦ unfamiliar genres (Hyperfiction) ◦ Indiscriminate use of wikipedia  Possibility for estranging ‘the text’ and ‘reading’

 Illustrations from Inanimate Alice  Links to online articles and web sites  Podcasts of the lectures, PPT slides  Blog assessment

Semiotics – narrative and gaming Authorship – collaborative nature of writing, Kate Pullinger’s lecture Textuality Readership Defamiliarization - making a text strange Feminism Race

 10 entries over a 12 week period  Set question each week  words long  Encourage regular engagement  Enable regular feedback  Support composition skills at the level of the sentence/paragraph

 What conventions should you use in an academic blog?  Do skills in online writing (adding links and images) transfer to other areas of English studies?  Does public viewing of work build confidence (or do students find this nervewracking)?  Risks of plagiarism?

 Not all students (or colleagues) will see the value in using digital texts ◦ Reading online will not replace reading books  Wider range of hyperfiction / genres included  Include more scholarly archives (e.g. JSTOR, primary archives)  Structure the independent learning progressively through the module

Defamiliarizing reading practices Extending the semiotic range of reading material Illustrating theoretical concepts Access (no multiple copies needed) Explicitly intertextual nature of hypertext encourages students to make connections We could have taught the theory without it, but it was much more interesting and engaging with digital textuality throughout.

 Wikipedia  Blogs: LiveJournal, Belle de Jour  Online Magazines  Had never seen or heard of Hyperfiction.

 Advantages  -Relevant to who I am and the things I know.  - Being able to draw new and interesting contrasts and comparisons.  - Generally more engaging.  Disadvantages  - The divide between those who could not see the relevance and those that could.  - Worrying that the sources (i.e. Unknown bloggers) were not credible.  - A degree of ‘spoon feeding’ where perhaps the less confident students would go back to the examples time after time.

 Advantages:  - Discipline of writing regularly and concisely  - Feedback within days  - Able to see growth as a writer  Disadvantages:  - Concerns about plagiarism between students  - Picking up bad habits when reading each others’ work

 The blog has opened doors and given me confidence.  Higher Education Academy Student Bloggers  Confidence building  - Work Experience  - Writing Competitions  - This conference (obviously)